Mobile terminals may utilize random access procedures in order to establish a connection and/or synchronization with a mobile communication network. For example, mobile terminals may utilize random access procedures to establish a new network connection, during handover procedures, and/or to establish timing synchronization with a base station.
In a Long Term Evolution (LTE) context, a base station may specify a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) configuration that designates a set of preamble sequences and specific time-frequency resources allocated for the PRACH, where one or more PRACH opportunities occur during specific radio frames. One or more mobile terminals that seek to connect to the base station may select one of the preamble sequences and transmit the selected preamble sequence to the base station on the PRACH. The PRACH resources may be shared between one or more mobile terminals, and accordingly each PRACH occasion may contain preamble sequences transmitted by one or more mobile terminals. Each available preamble sequence may be orthogonal to the other available preamble sequences, and accordingly a base station may individually detect multiple mobile terminals when each mobile terminal utilizes a different preamble sequence.